From February 26 to 28, 2016, the ELAS Fund held the 3rd Dialogue on Self-Care and Care among Women Activists. Held in partnership with the Self-Care Collective, the meeting is part of the Program to Combat Violence against Women, developed by the ELAS Fund with the support of the Sigrid Rausing Trust and aimed at ending violence against activists. Since 2014, this initiative has supported 18 projects on this theme.
Participating in the Dialogue were 23 activists from all over Brazil, representing the 8 grantees in the third phase of the project. They are indigenous women who face the struggle for land and against violence inside and outside the villages, black women who experience racism on a daily basis, women who face the removal of their communities, lesbians who seek respect for their sexual orientation, trans women who have to fight daily for the affirmation of their gender identity.gender.
The aim of this meeting was to identify the marks of the violence caused by racist and patriarchal power against the activists, share the pain left by this confrontation, identify the risks and then learn techniques for dealing with daily stress. The activities included debates on how each of them sees themselves in the face of the political situation, and anti-stress therapy workshops to create strategies for ensuring the personal safety of each of them and their group in the face of conflict situations.
"Over the three years that this initiative has been running, we have understood that looking carefully at each activist is indispensable for the feminist movement, as is promoting reflection on the negative consequences that activism and the fight for women's rights can and do have on activists' bodies. Seeking the well-being of these activists and their safety means guaranteeing the sustainability and strengthening of the women's movement itself in Brazil," says KK Verdade, executive coordinator of the ELAS Fund.
Investment in self-care is strategic
The ELAS Fund believes that self-care is a political action and considers it strategic to invest in the well-being and safety of activists. There are frequent cases of violence, criminalization of activists and the appearance of chronic illnesses which have serious consequences, including political and personal wear and tear both for the activists and for the groups and collectives of which they are a part, weakening the feminist movement.
The ELAS Fund's aim with this programme is to generate feminist knowledge on the subject, gather information, exchange experiences and good practices, document cases of violence against activists, strengthen activists and the feminist movement so that they can deal with cases of violence and at the same time make a political impact on this issue, supporting the mobilization of the women's movement around the well-being and safety of activists.
